THE PARTRIDGE. 137 



river-courses early in the autumn. We do not doubt that, with 

 properly-devised instruments, much larger numbers might have 

 been taken during the same season at this spot, as the birds were 

 very abundant indeed, and the materials used in their capture were 

 of the simplest and roughest character, and very little or no atten- 

 tion given to their skilful adjustment by the parties setting them. 

 "VVe need not, however, make any further comments as to the pro- 

 bability of this number being captured in one season, when it is 

 well known that the quails of the Old World (not more prolific 

 than the American partridge) assemble in such innumerable bodies, 

 at the same period of emigration, that one hundred thousand have 

 been taken in one day, within the space of four or five miles, along 

 the western coast of the kingdom of Naples. About the time of 

 their first appearance at Alexandria, after crossing the Mediterra- 

 nean, such multitudes are exposed for sale in the markets that 

 three or four may be bought for a medina, a piece of money less 

 than two cents in value. Whether there be such numbers of quails 

 in these parts at present we are not able to say ; but a few years 

 back such was the case ; and a writer informs us, " That so com- 

 pletely surfeited with this game have the crews of merchant-vessels 

 become, that they were forced, in some instances, to prefer com- 

 plaints against their captains, at the consul's office, for the pur- 

 pose of obtaining other kinds of food; or, in other words, for a 

 return to their salt junk and bean-soup."* 



The nets commonly used by our country-people are very simple 

 in their construction, often nothing more than an old fish-net 

 rudely fixed up for the purpose and set about in different parts 

 of the plantation where the birds are most apt to pass ; sometimes 

 a trail of grain leading to it conducts the unsuspecting birds into 

 captivity before they are aware of their proximity to danger. 



* Since writing the above, we find, in the " Spirit of the Times," a letter from a 

 correspondent in Iowa Territory, stating that he netted, in one season, ten thou- 

 sand partridges, in the neighborhood of Burlington, a town of that country, the 

 truth of which we do not for a moment doubt, for it only confirms the reports that 

 we have before heard of the immense numbers of these birds in those localities- 



